J 

UNIVERSITY DAY NUMBER 

FEBRUARY 22, 1898 J 

publications 

of the; 

^University, of Pennsylvania. 



University Bulletin. 

Volume II. Number 2. 




Founded 1740. 



Philadelphia : 
Published for the University of Pennsylvania. 
March, 1898. 



This number contains the Address 
by 

The PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES 



Announcement 




HE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN is published 
monthly during the academic year, from Oc- 
tober to June, 'inclusive. Briefly outlined, its 
purposes are to announce, from time to time, 
the establishment of new courses; to give a summary of 
University and Faculty legislation, where its importance 
warrants such publication ; to furnish information regarding 
original research, and to record the progress of literary and 
scientific work at the University ; and finally, to give pub- 
licity to such other matters of a general character as may 
be deemed of interest to the educational world. 



Annual Subscription, $1.00. 
Single Copies,* 15 cents. 



The UNIVERSITY BULLETIN is published under the 
editorial supervision of the BULLETIN COMMITTEE, con- 
sisting of the following members of the University Publica- 
tion Committee : 

MARION D. LEARNED, JOHN MARSHALL, M. D., 

Wm. Draper Lewis, J. hartley Merrick. 



List of University Publications at the close 
of this number. 

Orders for single numbers or complete sets of the Publi- 
cations should be sent direct to J. HARTLEY MERR4CK, 
Assistant Secretary, College Hall, Station B, University of 
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 



ii y 

publications 

OF THE 

V 

TDUuverstty of Pennsylvania* 



University Bulletin. 

Volume II. Number 2. 




Founded 1740. 



Philadelphia : 
Published for the University of Pennsylvania. 
March, 1898. 



6300 



UNIVERSITY DAY, 1898. 



The^exercises held by the University of Pennsylvania 
on February the twenty-second, 1898, in commemoration 
of the birth of George Washington^ First President of the 
United States, were rendered noteworthy by the presence 
of William McKinley, Twenty-fifth President of the 
United States, who made the address of the day before the 
officers and students of Pennsylvania, at the Academy of 
Music, Philadelphia. 

The ceremonies of the day were divided into two parts: 
the commemorative exercises at the Academy, and a recep- 
tion and luncheon to the President at the University 
Library. President McKinley arrived in Philadelphia on 
the afternoon of Monday, February 21, and was at once 
driven to the residence of the Provost of the University, 
whose guest he was during his stay in the city. On the 
morning of the twenty-second, students of the University 
to the number of about two thousand assembled by de- 
partments at the University, and, preceded by the Uni- 
versity Band, marched to the Academy of Music, the 
route of the procession being as follows: down Walnut 
street to Eighteenth street, down Eighteenth street to 
Locust street, down Locust street to the Academy of 
Music. As the procession passed the residence of the 
Provost on Locust street, it was reviewed by the President. 
Shortly after, the President, accompanied by the Provost, 
and escorted by the Veteran Corps, First Regiment In- 
fantry, N. G. P., Colonel T. E. Wiedersheim, Commanding, 
drove to the Academy of Music, where he was met and 
preceded in his entry to the stage by the procession of 
officers of instruction, trustees, and invited guests of the 
University, in full academic dress. The military escort of 

(3) 



4 



University Day Exercises. 



the President from the lobby to the stage consisted of the 
Army and Navy officers stationed in Philadelphia, nnder 
the honorary command of Captain John C. Watson, U. S. N. 
Upon the entrance of the President, the immense audience 
arose and greeted him with prolonged applause and cheers, 
while the band played " Hail to the Chief." The follow- 
ing is the full program of the exercises: 

SELECTIONS The Municipal Band 

Academic Procession 



PRAYER 

INTRODUCTION 
ADDRESS . . • 



The Bishop of Pennsylvania 

. . The Provost of the University 
The President of the United States 



National Hymn — "America" 



University Hymn — ' 'Hail ! Pennsylvania ' ' 
Benediction 



THE HYMNS. 

' 'America." 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing; 
Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the pilgrim's pride, 
From ev'ry mountain side 

Let freedom ring. 

My native country, thee — 
Land of the noble free — 

Thy name I love; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills; 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 



University Day Exercises. 



Our fathers' God— -to Thee, 
Author of liberty, 

To Thee we sing; 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light; 
Protect us by Thy might, 

Great God, our King. 



' i Hail ! Pennsylvania. ' ' 

Hail ! Pennsylvania, 

Noble and strong, 
To thee with loyal hearts, 

We raise our song. 
Swelling to Heaven, loud 

Our praises ring; 
Hail! Pennsylvania, 

Of thee we sing. 

Majesty, as a crown, 

Rests on Thy brow; 
Pride, Honor, Glory, Love, 

Before thee bow. 
Ne'er can thy spirit die, 

Thy walls decay; 
Hail! Pennsylvania, 

For thee we pray. 

Hail! Pennsylvania, 

Guide of our youth, 
Lead thou thy children on 

To light and truth; 
Thee, when death summons us>. 

Others shall praise, 
Hail! Pennsylvania, 

Thro' endless days! 



6 



University Day Exercises. 



At the conclusion of the proceedings, the President left 
the Academy accompanied by the Provost, and was driven 
to the University Library, under the escort of the First 
Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, Captain John C. Groome, 
Commanding. Upon arrival at the Library, the President 
was received by the Vice-Provost, assisted by the Deans of 
the several faculties. A brief reception was extended by 
the President to about four hundred guests. The latter 
were introduced by the Vice- Provost, and included the 
Trustees, administrative officers, professors and assistant 
professors of the University; the heads of educational in- 
stitutions in Pennsylvania and neighboring States ; Army 
and Navy officers; members of the consular service in 
Philadelphia ; and representatives of the bench and bar, of 
the clergy and of the business life of the city. Immedi- 
ately after the reception came the luncheon, the guests of 
honor at the President's table being the following, in order 
from left to right: Hon. Charles F. Warwick, Mayor of 
Philadelphia; Dr. John Marshall, Dean of the Medical 
Faculty ; Hon. James T. Mitchell, Justice of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania; Henry T. Pritchard, Superinten- 
dent U. S. Coast Survey; Hampton L. Carson, Esq., 
representing the Dean of the Law Faculty ; Clement A. 
Griscom, Esq., President of the International Navigation 
Company ; Captain Silas Casey, U. S. N., Commandant at 
League Island Navy Yard ; Dr. Edward C. Kirk, Dean of 
the Dental Faculty ; Colonel J. M. Whittemore, U. S. A., 
Commandant at Frankford Arsenal ; Dr. Leonard Pearson, 
Dean of the Veterinary Faculty ; Captain John C. Watson, 
U. S. N., Governor of Naval Home; Dr. Charles K. Mills, 
Dean of the Faculty Auxiliary to Medicine; J. Addison 
Porter, Esq., Private Secretary to the President; Dr. Josiah 
H. Penniman, Dean of the College Faculty ; Right Rev- 
erend Ozi W. Whitaker, Bishop of Pennsylvania; Hon. 
-Seth Low, President of Columbia University; Joseph S. 
.Harris, Esq., President of the Philadelphia and Reading 



University Day Exercises. 



7 



Railway Company; the President of the United States; 
Dr. George S. Fullerton, Vice-Provost of the University. 

At the end of this high day, the President, accompanied 
by the Provost, was driven to the station, taking the train 
thence direct to Washington. 

The weather throughout was all that could be desired, 
while the occasion itself will go down into the history of 
the University of Pennsylvania as one replete with the 
greatest dignity and significance. 

The invocation by the Bishop of Pennsylvania, the 
introduction by the Provost of the University and the 
address of the President of the United States are recorded 
verbatim below. 

INVOCATION BY THE BISHOP OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



" Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we come to Thee 
as Thy children to thank Thee for Thy great mercies. 
We thank Thee that Thou hast given us this land to be 
our home, for civil and religious liberty, for all that we are 
permitted to see and know of the increase of knowledge, 
the continual revelation of powers and properties which 
Thou didst create, but which men have so long failed to 
discern. Grant, O Lord, that we may tread reverently in 
the paths which Thou hast permitted us to enter, and that 
all our learning may lead us to know Thee more perfectly, 
and to adore Thee as the fountain of all power and knowl- 
edge and wisdom and goodness, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. 

" We thank Thee that when Thy purposes for this land 
were unfolding Thou didst raise up Thy servant, George 
Washington, to be the guide and leader of this people ; to 
be their Commander in war and their Chief Magistrate in 
peace, and that by him Thou didst conduct them through 
struggle and peril and strife, to victory and its fruits. 



8 



University Day Exercises. 



" Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, that we and all this 
people may be animated by his spirit and follow his 
example ; that we may never use opportunities that come 
in our way for the advancement of personal interests at 
the cost of the public welfare ; that our zeal for the success 
of a party may never be stronger than our love for our 
country ; and that whether our station be high or low, 
according to the standards of men, we may always regard 
ourselves Thy servants, whose highest privilege, as well as 
duty, is the faithful doing of Thy will. 

" May Thy blessing, O God, rest upon the University of 
Pennsylvania ; that it may be more and more a centre of 
sound learning and good influence ; that its sons may go 
forth from year to year to reinforce the best citizenship of 
the State, and to be each one an embodiment of justice 
and truth and fidelity to principles ; and that they may 
thus fulfill their course with honor and usefulness in this 
life, and attain the high destiny which Thou hast made 
possible for them in the life to come, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen. 

" Most gracious God, we humbly beseech Thee, as for 
the people of these United States in general, so especially 
for their Senate and Representatives in Congress assembled ; 
that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper all 
their consultations to the advancement of Thy glory, the 
good of Thy Church, the safety, honor and welfare of Thy 
people : that all things may be so ordered and settled by 
their endeavors upon the best and surest foundations, that 
peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety 
may be established among us for all generations. These 
and all other necessaries for them, for us and Thy whole 
Church, we humbly beg in the name and mediation of 
Jesus Christ, our most blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen. 

" O Lord, our heavenly Father, the high and mighty 
Ruler of the universe, Who dost from Thy throne behold 
all the dwellers upon earth, most heartily we beseech Thee 



University Day Exercises. 



9 



with Thy favor to behold and bless Thy servant, the Presi- 
dent of the United States, and all others in authority ; and 
so replenish them with the grace of Thy Holy Spirit that 
they may always incline to Thy will and walk in Thy way. 
Endue them plenteously with heavenly gifts ; grant them 
in health and prosperity long to live, and finally, after this 
life, to attain everlasting joy and felicity through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

" Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings this day with Thy 
mighty power, and further us with Thy continual help, 
that in all our works begun, continued and ended in Thee, 
we may glorify Thy Holy Name, and finally, by Thy 
mercy, obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ, our 
Lord. Amen. 

" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all 
evermore. Amen." 



INTRODUCTION BY THE PROVOST OF THE UNIVERSITY. 



Mr. President, Students of the University, Ladies 
and Gentlemen : 

The traditions which belong to the great seats of learn- 
ing are a priceless heritage. We cannot too often dwell 
upon them. The memory of them becomes not only the 
forerunner of hope, but the motive and mainspring of 
action. Each university in our beloved country has its 
peculiar associations. It is not the least of these associa- 
tions that, with one exception, all of those upon our Atlantic 
coast had their foundation almost at the beginning of our 
history. It is the pride of Harvard that she was founded 
six years after the first house was built in Boston, and when 
there were not over 5000 people in the settlements of 
Massachusetts Bay. It is the pride of William and Mary 



IO 



University Day Exercises. 



and of Yale that each was founded when Connecticut and 
Virginia were unsubdued wilderness. It is the pride of 
Columbia that she was founded when there were but 13,000 
people on Manhattan Island. It is the pride of Pennsyl- 
vania that she was founded when there were not 15,000 
people between the Delaware and Schuylkill. It should 
be the pride of all of us, because the fact itself proves that 
universities are an essential consequence to a race, and that 
a people who so early in their history laid these foundations 
will not willingly let any one of them perish. Their life 
will be coterminous with that of the nation, and when 
they perish the nation will perish likewise. 

It is the peculiar pride of the University of Pennsylvania 
that so much of her history is associated with the years 
during which Washington was the servant of his country. 
Of whatsoever others may boast, we justly feel that we have 
pre-eminence in this relation ; and now, in these later years, 
in the vigor of renewed youth, we have consecrated the 
twenty-second of February as our "University Day," with 
a propriety that cannot be challenged. Upon what academic 
roll can be found the names of such illustrious men, com- 
panions of Washington, in the service of their country and 
of humanity, as those of Franklin, founder and trustee ; 
of Robert Morris, friend of Washington, and the man who, 
with Washington and Franklin, rendered the most signal 
service during so many years of trial ; of Francis Hopkin- 
son, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Chief of 
the Navy Department, trustee of the University of 
Pennsylvania ; of John Nixon, trustee, who read the 
Declaration of Independence to the townspeople who were 
assembled at the State House — the original broadside from 
which he read still being in existence and owned in Phila- 
delphia by one of his descendants ; of Thomas McKean, 
trustee, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Presi- 
dent of the Continental Congress, Chief Justice of the State 
of Pennsylvania, Governor of the State of Pennsylvania. 



University Day Exercises. 



1 1 



Who may reckon among their students, graduated just 
before the Revolutionary War and active participants in 
the struggle, such names as those of Hopkinson, to whom 
I have just referred ; of Jacob Duche, Chaplain of the 
Continental Congress ; of John Morgan, Physician-in- 
Chief to the American Armies ; of Major-General Dickin- 
son ; of Mifflin, Aide-de-Camp to General Washington ;, 
of John and Lambert Cadwalader, and of Tench Tilghman, 
Military Secretary and Aide-de-Camp to General Washing- 
ton, chosen by him to bear his dispatch to Congress 
announcing the surrender of Cornwallis ? 

Seven years of Washington's Presidential life were spent 
in Philadelphia, and these at a time when the area of 
the city was circumscribed within a short radius ; when its 
institutions were few in number, and when a comparatively 
small group of its citizens were the active spirits in affairs. 
These men met each other face to face every day in the 
week, and whatever was of moment was better known and 
more discussed in the familiarity of their daily intercourse 
than even in these days of ours. Washington's residence 
was within a few blocks of the University. He was in 
constant intercourse with its White and Franklin, and 
Provosts Smith and Bwing. His associates in the Conti- 
nental Congress, in military operations and in Federal 
administration, were its Rittenhouse, its Morgan, its 
Bingham, its Francis Hopkinson, its McKean, its Shippen, 
and its Robert Morris. From the Executive Mansion, 
Bushrod Washington went in daily attendance on its law 
course, under James Wilson, the first Justice of the 
Supreme Court. The President and Mrs. Washington, 
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Morris, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander 
Hamilton, and all the members of the Cabinet were of 
those who graced the occasion of the opening of the Law 
School of the University, in the old Academy Building, at 
Fourth and Arch streets — still the property of the Uni- 
versity. 



12 



University Day Exercises. 



During Washington's Presidency, two of his nephews, 
George Steptoe and Lawrence Augustine Washington, took 
here their degrees as Bachelor of Arts. In 1783 the 
University of Pennsylvania conferred upon Washington its 
highest honorary degree. 

The theme of to-day's ceremonies is the u Memory of 
Washington." No place is more fitted for it or more 
hallowed by its associations than Philadelphia and the 
University of Pennsylvania. Upon no less exalted theme 
could the University of Pennsylvania have asked the 
President of the United States to deliver the address, and I 
doubt whether there be any other occasion upon which his 
acceptance would have been given. For many years the 
University has been steadfast in the celebration of this 
high day, and in later years, with increasing zeal, to make 
the occasion more and more worthy of its subject. But 
never since the day when the President of the United 
States, General Washington, opened the Law School of the 
University have we been honored by the presence and 
voice of a President, to speak in the name of the University, 
of the first of that illustrious line. The President will 
address to-day those who gratefully feel his gracious act, 
in that amid the cares and duties of his exalted office he 
has counted it worthy of his time and effort to be our orator 
upon this occasion. I speak for the Trustees, for the 
Faculties, for the University students, for the City, and for 
the entire State, when I thank him for his acceptance of 
our invitation, and welcome him to the University so 
closely connected in its earlier days with the " Father of 
His Country." 

I have the distinguished honor of presenting the Trustees, 
the Faculties and the students of the University, and their 
guests — this great audience — to the President. 



University Day Exercises. 



13 



ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Mr. Provost, Officers and Students of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

We celebrate here, as in every part of our country, 
the birthday of a great patriot, who assured the beginning 
of a great nation. This day belongs to patriotism and the 
people. But in a certain sense the University of Pennsyl- 
vania has special reasons for honoring the twenty-second of 
February. For over half a century, with ever-increasing 
popularity and public recognition, you have observed the 
occasion either as a holiday or with patriotic exercises, 
participated in by faculty and students. No other American 
institution of learning has a prouder title to the veneration 
of Washington's memory than this, whose foundation was 
laid in colonial days, nearly fifty years before Pennsylvania 
became a State ; whose progress was largely due to the 
activity of Franklin and other zealous and far-seeing 
patriots, and whose trustees were on terms of sufficient 
intimacy with Washington to congratulate him upon his 
election to the Presidency, and to receive from him a notable 
reply which has passed into the history of the times. 

Washington, too, belonged to the brotherhood of the 
alumni of this institution, having accepted the degree of 
Doctor of Laws, conferred upon him in 1783 — an honor 
doubtless the more appreciated when he recalled the events 
which gave him close and peculiar attachment to the city 
of Philadelphia. 

No wonder that your great University has made the 
twenty-second of February its most impressive ceremonial, 
and devoted its annual exercises to special tributes to the 
memory of the first President of the United States, and the 
patriotic themes which cluster thickly about his life and 
work. I rejoice with you in the day. I rejoice, also, that 
throughout this broad land the birthday of the patriot 



University Day Exercises. 



leader is faithfully observed and celebrated with an enthu- 
siasm and earnestness which testify to the virtue and 
gratitude of the American people. 

It would not be possible, in the comparatively short time 
to which these exercises must to-day be limited, to follow 
Washington in his long and distinguished services at the 
head of the army, and as Chief Executive of the Govern- 
ment. My purpose is simply to call to your attention a 
few points in Washington's career which have singularly 
impressed me, and to refer to some passages in his writings 
that seem peculiarly appropriate for the guidance of the 
people, who, under our form of government, have in their 
keeping the well-being of the country. 

In its entirety Washington's public life is as familiar to 
the American student as the history of the United States. 
They are associated in holy and indissoluble bonds. The 
one is incomplete without the other. The one cannot 
be written without the other. Washington's character 
and achievements have been a part of the school books 
of the nation for more than a century, and have moved 
American youth and American manhood to aspire to the 
highest ideals of responsible citizenship. With enduring 
fame as a great soldier, the world has recognized his equal 
accomplishments in the paths of statesmanship. As a 
soldier he was peerless in the times in which he lived, and 
as a statesman his rank is fixed with the most illustrious in 
any country or in any age. 

But with all our pride in Washington we not infrequently 
fail to give him credit for his marvelous genius as a 
constructive statesman. We are constantly in danger of 
losing sight of the sweep and clearness of his comprehen- 
sion, which accurately grasped the problems of the remote 
future and knew how to formulate the best means for their 
solution. It was committed to Washington to launch our 
ship of state. He had neither precedent nor predecessor to 
help him. He welded the scattered and at times antago- 



University Day Exercises. 



15 



nistic colonies into an indestructible Union, and inculcated 
the lessons of mutual forbearance and fraternity which 
have cemented the States into still closer bonds of interest 
and sympathy. 

From the hour when Washington declared in his Virginia 
home that he would raise 1000 men and equip them at his 
own expense to march to the defence of Boston, he became 
the masterful spirit of the Continental army and the 
mightiest single factor in the continent's struggle for liberty 
and independence. Apparently without personal ambition, 
spurning royal honors when they were suggested to him, 
he fulfilled a still more glorious destiny as the guiding 
force of a civilization freer and mightier than the history 
of man had ever known. 

Though Washington's exalted character and the most 
striking acts of his brilliant record are too familiar to be 
recounted here, where so many times they have received 
eloquent and deserved eulogy, yet often as the story is 
retold it engages our love and admiration and interest. 
We love to recall his noble unselfishness, his heroic pur- 
poses, the power of his magnificent personality, his glorious 
achievements for mankind, and his stalwart and unflinching 
devotion to independence, liberty and union. These can- 
not be too often told or be too familiarly known. 

A slaveholder himself, he yet hated slavery and provided 
in his will for the emancipation of his slaves. Not a college 
graduate, he was always enthusiastically the friend of 
liberal education. He used every suitable occasion to 
impress upon Congress and the country the importance of 
a high standard of general education, and characterized the 
diffusion of knowledge as the most essential element of 
strength in the system of free government. That learning* 
should go with liberty, and that liberty is never endangered 
so long as it is in the keeping of intelligent citizens, was 
the ideal civic code which his frequent utterances never 
failed to enforce. 



i6 



University Day Exercises. 



And how reverent always was this great man ; how 
prompt and generous his recognition of the guiding hand 
of Divine Providence in establishing and controlling the 
destinies of the colonies and the Republic. Again and 
again — in his talks, in his letters, in his State papers and 
formal addresses — he reveals this side of his character, the 
force of which we still feel, and I trust we always will. 

At the very height of his success and reward, as he 
emerged from the Revolution, receiving by unanimous 
acclaim the plaudits of the people, and commanding the 
respect and admiration of the civilized world, he did not 
forget that his first official act as President should be fervent 
supplication to the Almighty Being who rules the universe, 

It is He who presides in the councils of nations and 
whose providential aid can supply every human defect. 
It is His benediction which we most want ; and which can 
and will consecrate the liberties and happiness of the people 
of the United States. With His help the instruments of 
the citizens employed to carry out their purposes will suc- 
ceed in the functions allotted to public life. 

But Washington on this occasion went further and spoke 
for the people, assuming that he but voiced the sentiment 
of the young nation in thus making faith in Almighty God, 
and reliance upon His favor and care, one of the strong 
foundations of the Government then inaugurated. And 
proceeding, Washington states the reasons for his belief in 
language so exalted that it should be graven deep upon the 
mind of every patriot : 

u No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the 
invisible hand which conducts the affairs of man more than 
the people of the United States. 

" Every step by which they have advanced to the char- 
acter of an independent nation seems to have been distin- 
guished by some token of providential agency ; and in the 
important revolution just accomplished, in the system of 
their united government, the tranquil deliberations and 



University Day Exercises. 



7 



voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from 
which the events resulted cannot be compared with the 
means by which most governments have been established 
without some return of pious gratitude, along with an 
humble anticipation of the future blessings which the same 
seems to presage. These reflections arising out of the pres- 
ent crisis have forced themselves strongly upon my mind. 

" You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there 
are none under the influence of which the proceedings of 
a new and free government are more auspiciously com- 
menced." 

The Senate of the United States made fitting response 
of its appreciation of this portion of the President's inau- 
gural address when its members declared that " a review 
of the many signal instances of divine intervention in 
favor of the country claims our most pious gratitude, and 
that they were inevitably led to acknowledge and adore the 
Great Arbiter of the Universe by whom empires rise and 
fall." 

Congress added its sanction by providing that " after the 
oath shall have been administered to the President, he, 
attended by the Vice-President and the members of the 
Senate and House of Representatives, proceed to St. Paul's 
Chapel to hear divine services performed by the Chaplain 
of Congress already appointed." 

Not alone upon days of thanksgiving or in times of trial 
should we, as a people, remember and follow the example 
thus set by the fathers, but never in our future as a nation 
should we forget the great moral and religious principles 
which they enunciated and defended as their most precious 
heritage. 

In an age of great activity, of. industrial and commercial 
strife, and of perplexing problems, we should never abandon 
the simple faith in Almighty God as recognized in the 
name of the American people by Washington and the First 
Congress. 



i8 



University Day Exercises. 



But if a timely lesson is to be drawn from the opinions 
of Washington on his assuming the office of President, so 
also is much practical benefit to be derived from the present 
application of portions of his Farewell Address, a document 
in which Washington laid down principles which appeared 
to him " all important to the permanence of your felicity 
as a people." 

In that address, Washington contends in part : 

(i) For the promotion of institutions of learning ; (2) 
for cherishing the public credit ; (3) for the observance of 
good faith and justice toward all nations. 

One hundred years ago free schools were little known in 
the United States. There were excellent schools for the 
well-to-do, and charitable institutions for the instruction of 
boys and girls without means ; but the free public school, 
open alike to the children of the rich and poor and supported 
by the State, awaited creation and development. The seed 
planted by the fathers soon bore fruit. Free schools were 
the necessary supplement of free men. 

The wise and liberal provisions for public instruction 
by the fathers, second only in effect to their struggle 
for the independence and creation of the Union, were 
destined at no distant date to produce the most wonderful 
results. 

As the country has grown education, fostered by the 
State, has kept pace with it. Rich as are the collegiate 
endowments of the old world, none of them excel in muni- 
ficence the gifts made to educational institutions by the 
people of the United States and by their governments, in 
conformity with "the influence which sound learning has 
on religion and manners, on government, liberty and laws." 
Adams and Madison, Jefferson and Hamilton, Sherman and 
Trumbull, Hancock, Jay, Marshall, the Clintons, and many 
others of our early statesmen, were scarcely less earnest 
and eloquent than Washington himself in pleading the 
cause of sound and liberal education for the people. 



University Day Exercises. 



19 



Nor does this seem surprising when we reflect that the 
truest aim and worthiest ambition of education is not fin- 
ished scholarship for the favored few, but the elevation of 
a high standard of citizenship among the many. 

I have had peculiar satisfaction in the fact that Wash- 
ington in those early days, when engrossed with mighty 
governmental problems, did not forget his contributions for 
the education of the poor, and left in his will a bequest to 
be dedicated to free public instruction. Nothing better 
tells the value he placed upon knowledge as an essential 
to the highest and best citizenship. 

How priceless is a liberal education! In itself what a 
rich endowment ! It is not impaired by age, but its value 
increases with use. No one can employ it but its rightful 
owner. He alone can illustrate its worth and enjoy its 
rewards. It can not be inherited or purchased. It must 
be acquired by individual effort. It can be secured only 
by perseverance and self-denial. But it is free as the air 
we breathe. Neither race nor nationality nor sex can debar 
the earnest seeker from its possession. It is not exclusive, 
but inclusive in the broadest and best sense. It is within 
the reach of all who really want it, and are brave enough 
to struggle for it. The earnest rich and the worthy poor 
are equal and friendly rivals in its pursuit, and neither is 
exempted from any of the sacrifices necessary for its acqui- 
sition. The key to its title is not the .bright allurements 
of rank and station, but the simple watchword of work 
and study. 

A liberal education is the prize of individual industry. 
It is the greatest blessing that a man or woman can enjoy 
when supported by virtue, morality and noble aims. But 
the acquirement of learning in our schools and colleges 
seems so easy that we are apt to underestimate its value and 
let the opportunity to win it slip by, until, regretfully, we 
find that the chance is gone. The rudiments must be 
ingrafted in youth, or, with rare exceptions, they are 
forever lost. 



20 



University Day Exercises, 



Life to most is a struggle, and there is little time for the 
contemplation of the theoretical when the practical is 
pressing at every hand. Stern duty monopolizes our time. 
The command of others controls our preferences, and often 
defeats our intentions. By steadily adhering to a firm pur- 
pose amid the activities of life we may keep in touch with 
the literature of the day ; but to go back to the classics, 
or to grapple with the foundations of the sciences is beyond 
the power of most men when they have entered upon their 
chosen business or profession. 

One's mental fighting, often a hand-to-hand conflict with 
obstacles and temptations, is a battle of his own, a campaign 
whose motive force is individuality rather than circum- 
stances or luck. Work in the mental world is as real as 
that in the physical world. Nor has any prescription yet 
been found to take the place of application and self-denial 
and personal struggles which have given to the world its 
greatest leaders and noblest achievements. 

" Cherish the public credit." How much both of reflec- 
tion and instruction is combined in this simple admonition 
of the " Father of His Country." The United States 
emerged from the bitter and prolonged struggle of the Revo- 
lutionary War exhausted financially, and with a hundred 
existing perplexities and difficulties which remained to be 
solved before the financial credit of the new nation could 
be established at home and demonstrated abroad. 

But Washington knew how to gather around him and 
place in positions of the greatest trust the able financiers 
and economists, whose names the country still venerates 
and whose great work it still enjoys. Hamilton and 
Morris and Gallatin and others were successful in establish- 
ing the Treasury, and inaugurating the financial operations 
of this Government upon principles which recognized that 
the most enduring basis of national credit was national 
honor, and that whatever other assets we might have or 
acquire, that was indispensable, first, last and all the time, 



University Day Exercises. 



21 



if we would cherish the public credit. We have been 
fully rewarded all along our history by adhering to the 
principles of Washington in keeping the public faith. 
Before half a century had passed we had paid off our national 
debt, and had a balance in the Treasury. Another debt, 
the greatest in our history, was incurred in the Civil War 
for the preservation of the Union. But this did not exceed 
the resources or discourage the intentions of the American 
people. There were those who suggested repudiation, but 
the people repudiated them and went on unchecked, dis- 
charging the obligations of the Government in the coin of 
honor. 

From the day our flag was unfurled to the present hour 
no stain of a just obligation violated has yet tarnished the 
American name. This must and will be as true in the 
future as it has been in the past. There will be prophets 
of evil and false teachers. Some part of the column may 
waver and wander away from the standard, but there will 
ever rally around it a mighty majority to preserve it stain- 
less. 

At no point in his administration does Washington appear 
in grander proportions than when he enunciates his ideas 
in regard to the foreign policy of the Government : " Observe 
good faith and justice toward all nations, cultivate peace 
and harmony with all ; religion and morality enjoin this 
conduct. Can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin 
it ? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened and at no 
distant period a great nation to give to mankind the mag- 
nanimous and too novel example of a people always guided 
by an exalted justice and benevolence." 

To-day, nearly a century from Washington's death, we 
turn reverentially to study the leading principles of that 
comprehensive chart for the guidance of the people. It 
was his unflinching, immovable devotion to these percep- 
tions of duty which more than anything else made him 
what he was and contributed so directly to make us what 



22 



University Day Exercises. 



we are. Following the precepts of Washington, we cannot 
err. The wise lessons in government which he left us it 
will be profitable to heed. He seems to have grasped all 
possible conditions and pointed the way safely to meet 
them. He has established danger signals all along the 
pathway of the nation's march. He has warned us against 
false lights. He has taught us the true philosophy of "a 
perfect union," and shown us the grave dangers from 
sectionalism and wild and unreasonable party spirit. He 
has emphasized the necessity at all times for the exercise 
of sober and dispassionate public judgment. Such judg- 
ment, my fellow-citizens, is the best safeguard in the calm 
of tranquil events, and rises superior and triumphant 
above the storms of woe and peril. 

We have every incentive to cherish the memory and 
teachings of Washington. His wisdom and foresight have 
been confirmed and vindicated after more than a century 
of experience. His best eulogy is the work he wrought, 
his highest tribute is the great Republic which he and his 
compatriots founded. From 4,000,000 we have grown to 
more than 70,000,000 of people, while our progress in 
industry, learning and the arts has been the wonder of the 
world. 

What the future will be depends upon ourselves, and that 
that future will bring still greater blessings to a free people 
I cannot doubt. With education and morality in their 
homes, loyalty to the underlying principles of free govern- 
ment in their hearts, and law and justice fostered and 
exemplified by those entrusted with public administration, 
we will continue to enjoy the respect of mankind and the 
gracious favor of Almighty God . The priceless opportunity 
is ours to demonstrate anew the enduring triumph of Ameri- 
can civilization, and to help in the progress and prosperity 
of the land we love. 



